Downloads

Connect with us

How Maternal, Family and Cumulative Risk Affect Absenteeism in Early Schooling Facts for Policymakers

What is the role of the schooling experience
in the educational trajectories and outcomes of children exposed to
risk?

Maternal and family risks are associated with greater
absenteeism and the cumulative exposure to risk best predicts
chronic absenteeism in early schooling. Kindergarten children in
contact with three or more risks missed three or more days than
their peers not facing any risks. But as children progress through
the elementary grades, the impact of cumulative risk on school
attendance lessens, only to rise again in the fifth grade. The most
vulnerable children – those who are poor or racial/ethnic
minorities or suffer from poor health–have the greatest
exposure to cumulative risk.

How Prevalent are Maternal and Family Risks among U.S.
Elementary School Children?

The maternal and family risks most commonly encountered by U.S.
kindergartners include:

The least frequent risks were being born to a teenage mother (4
percent) or living with an unemployed mother (4.5 percent).

These risks are more persistent among the most vulnerable
children – those who were poor, racial/ethnic minorities, or
suffered from poor health. A child’s risk status is directly
related to family income; the poorer the children, the more
they experience any of the risks tracked. For every affluent
kindergartner – living at 400 percent of, or above the
federal poverty level – who experienced each of the following
risks:

Nonwhite children consistently experienced greater risks than
their white counterparts.3 Black children encountered more
risks than did Hispanic children, except for low maternal
education, which was more common among the latter than among the
former. Thus, for every white kindergartner experiencing each of
the following risks,

six black and four Hispanic children had mothers on
welfare;

four black and two Hispanic children lived with a single
mother; and

three black and six Hispanic children had a mother with low
education.

For every white kindergartner who experienced each of the
following risks,
five children of each nonwhite group lived in poverty;

three faced food insecurity at home;

three were born to a teenage mother;

two had a mother with poor health; and

two lived in families with a large number of children.

Kindergartners with poor health were more likely to encounter
more risks than their healthy peers.4

How Do Individual Risk Factors Relate to Early Chronic
Absenteeism?

Differences in absences comparing each individual risk, in
general, were small, with poverty resulting in four extra days of
absenteeism in kindergarten, on average, and food insecurity and
welfare receipt resulting in 2.5 additional days of absenteeism in
the same grade. These differences were the highest in this grade,
and decreased steadily through third grade, reflecting increases in
overall attendance observed in early elementary schooling, only to
rise again, even if slightly, in fifth grade.

Poverty

Figure 1: Children living below the poverty level were more
likely to be chronic absentees in the elementary grades

Across grades, children living in families below the Federal
Poverty Level missed, on average, slightly over one day more than
their non-poor peers. In kindergarten, 21 percent of poor children
were chronic absentees, compared to nearly 8 percent of their
non-poor peers.

Teenage Mother

Children born to teenage mothers were absent over one day more,
on average, than those born to mothers older than 18 years. In
kindergarten, almost 22 percent of children born to teenage mothers
and almost 10 percent of those born to older mothers missed 10
percent or more of the school year.

Single Mother

Children living in mother-only households missed one day more,
on average, than children living in two-parent households. Nearly
16 percent of kindergartners living in mother-only households and
10 percent of those living in two-parent households were chronic
absentees.5

Low Maternal Education

Children whose mothers had less than a high school education
missed, on average, almost 1.5 more days of school than those of
mothers with a high school education or more. In kindergarten, 22
percent of children of mothers with low education were chronic
absentees, compared to 9 percent of those whose mothers had
completed at least high school.

Welfare Receipt

Children whose mothers were on welfare during the previous 12
months missed, on average, 1.7 more days of school than their
counterparts in the elementary grades. In kindergarten, 25 percent
of children whose mothers were on welfare and 9 percent of their
nonwelfare peers were chronic absentees.

Unemployment

Children whose mothers were unemployed were absent, on average,
over two days more than their counterparts in the elementary
grades. In kindergarten, children of unemployed mothers were 2.3
times more likely than their counterparts to be chronic absentees
(19 percent versus 8 percent).6

Mother with Poor Health

Children whose mothers reported experiencing poor health missed
almost two days of kindergarten, on average, than those whose
mothers were in good health. They were over twice as likely as
their counterparts to be chronic absentees.7

Food Insecurity

Kindergartners living in households experiencing food insecurity
skipped, on average, over two days more of school than their peers
living in food-secure households. Twenty-two percent of
kindergartners in food-insecure households were chronic absentees,
compared to 9 percent of their peers in food-secure households.8

Four or More Children at Home

Kindergartners living in homes with four or more minors missed,
on average, one day more of school than their peers in small
families. In kindergarten, 15 percent of the former and 9 percent
of the latter were chronic absentees.

What is the Incidence of Cumulative Risk among U.S.
Children?

Almost 14 percent of kindergartners experienced high levels of
risk;

53 percent faced no risk; and

23 percent and 10 percent were exposed to one and two risks,
respectively.

The proportion of children encountering three or more risks
diminished over the grades, reaching 9 percent in fifth grade.9

Poor and low income children

Poor and low income children were more likely than their more
affluent peers to encounter high risk throughout their elementary
school lives.

65 percent of poor kindergartners faced three or more
risks;

9 percent of low income, 7 percent of middle income, and less
than 1 percent of affluent peers – (living at 400 percent or
above of the federal poverty level)10 faced three or more
risks.

Black and Hispanic Children

On average, black and Hispanic children were, respectively, five
and four times more likely than their white peers to be exposed to
three or more risks. In kindergarten, 6 percent of white children
faced high cumulative risk, compared to 38 percent of black
children and over 28 percent of Hispanic children.

Children With Poor Health

Children whose health was poor were three times more likely than
their healthy peers to experience three or more risks. Among
kindergartners, over 36 percent of children with poor health were
exposed to high risk, compared to 13 percent of their healthy
counterparts.

How Does Cumulative Risk Relate to Early Chronic
Absenteeism?

Figure 2: Children exposed to high risk were more likely to be
chronic absentees

In general, the greater the exposure to cumulative risk, the
greater the absenteeism. Regardless of income- and
race/ethnicity-based differences in absenteeism, kindergartners
with three or more risks averaged almost three more absences than
their peers not exposed to any risk. This difference decreased to
two and less than one day, on average, in first and third grade,
and rose to over one day in fifth grade.

Children with three or more risks were more likely
than their peers without any risks to miss 10 percent or more of
the school year. In kindergarten, 21 percent of children with three
or more risks were chronic absentees, compared to 5 percent of
children without risks. This proportion decreased in both first and
third grades, only to increase slightly in fifth grade.

Conclusion

Poverty and other forms of maternal and family risk have a
detrimental impact, both singly but particularly in combination, on
children’s early formal education experiences. Children
vulnerable by virtue of their poverty, racial/ethnic minority, and
poor health status experience greater risk than their affluent,
white, and healthy peers.11 Individual risks tend to
co-occur in the population studied. Some of these risks – for
instance, maternal education – have two-generational
implications in that they constitute risks for both
children’s development and maternal employment.12 The findings point to the
urgency to identify and provide supports to vulnerable children
early in their formal schooling careers in order to steer them
toward successful early learning trajectories. They also highlight
the need to examine how protective factors – resources,
skills, and abilities of parents, families and communities –
can help strengthen children’s resiliency in the context of
highrisk exposure,13 and contribute to early
school success.

The full report,
The Influence of Maternal and Family Risk on Chronic
Absenteeism in Early Schooling, by Mariajosé Romero and
Young-Sun Lee can be found at
www.nccp.org/publications/pub_792.html.

4. Teenage mother, unemployment, and large family size were not statistically significant.

5. Absenteeism patterns appeared to differ by whether the household was headed by a single mother or a single father, suggesting that children’s absenteeism was more severe if they lived in father-only households, as opposed to mother-only households. This finding ought to be taken cautiously since in some grades the number of father-only households in the study subset was small. Therefore, the study focused on mother-only households and father-only households were dropped from the analysis.

6. Mothers who reported not being in the labor force at the time of the survey were not included in this analysis. Data on fifth grade are not included because of the very small number of unemployed mothers in this grade.

7. Information on parent’s health was collected only in kindergarten and third grade.

8. Data on food insecurity were not available for 1st Grade.

9. It is important to take into account the higher attrition over time among low income and minority study participants than among higher income and white study participants.

10. By definition, there were no poor children without any cumulative risk, since poverty status was among the risks considered. Eleven percent of kindergartners faced one risk, poverty alone, whereas 24 percent encountered two risks. Income-based differences in exposure to cumulative risk persisted even after poverty status and welfare receipt were excluded: here, 26 percent of poor kindergartners faced three or more risks, compared to 6 percent or low income children, and less than one percent of middle income and affluent kindergartners.

11. Forehand, Rex, & Brody, Gene. (2002). Psychosocial adjustment of African American children in single-mother families: A test of three risk models. Journal of Marriage and Family, 64(1), 105-115.